Good Bye

“End of a legend’. This was the message that flashed on my TV screen on an early Monday morning, informing us of the sad demise of Ustad Bismillah Khan. Im sure it would not have been very shocking for people who followed his life, as this was expected. But what made me think was the message that was constantly flashing. Wonder if there can ever be an end to a legend.

Two days back, when a news channel broadcasted the news of his illness, I was kinda happy to see that at least someone bothered to cover his life for once. If I can recall well, I had been to one of his concerts almost 6 years back when I was in Mumbai. He was made to wait for hours to play and the monitors were never adjusted which eventually got him frustrated. How can you disrespect a man of that age and stature? I had not given this a thought then but now I wonder what importance does great music get in our country. 2001, he received the Bharat Ratna. He was 84 then. Where was the government all these days? And where was it when he was severely ill two years later. Would a Shah Rukh Khan have got the same treatment? John Abraham suffers a stomach ache and it hits the newspapers!

The scenario has always been the same in our country. We always agree that what’s famous is good. No wonder musicians like Himesh are topping the charts. (I pity that guy. He is always our target but I guess he deserves it.) Im not sure how many people in this country have even heard of Ustad Bismillah Khan or for that matter any other Indian musicians. The world respects these people but we don’t and the worst is that we are very proud of it. The other day, I happen to over hear two people talk about music. “Arre who kya raag-waag sunta rehta hai din bhar. Boring life hai teri.” is the way one describes our own music. I agree that Komodo and I are too much into international rock but then, that’s classic rock. We would never appreciate any hardcore guitaring with lyrics that sound more like a tribute to Eminem. And also, the three of us respect the music that people like Bismillah Khan created. That’s nothing but pure music. In fact, I have always been lucky enough to be amongst people who appreciate quality music. Be it my cousins, family or team-mates.

It was two days back when Komodo sent me a TOI article on Floyd. Over a thousand weeks in the US Billboard magazine's top 200 albums of all time. At 28 million copies sold, it’s the third largest selling album till date. The next best being ’The Wall’, also by Floyd. Man, what a band! Can anything get better than this? All these records prove that the people all over the world love their own music. Can one imagine a Zakir Hussain or a Jasraj featuring in any of our countdowns? Never has it happened and I can bet it’s never gonna happen. More because we will never allow it to happen because most of us are mesmerized by the scratch effects used in today’s songs. I guess one in a thousand people actually take the pains of understanding a song. And also that one in hundred tracks today have different lyrics. There seems to be a collection of words (Not more than 50 in number) and a permutation-combination of the same results in a song. Not sure where the Indian music industry is headed. But as long as musicians like Bismillah Khan and Floyd exist, existence of quality music is assured.

- AHAK

While I was watching the news about the demise, one of my room mates walks down to the hall, stares at the television and asks “Isn’t he the same guy who sings?”. “Is it? I thought he played guitars for Himesh.”….I replied sarcastically.